Systems and methods for providing an interactive experience for people in a vehicle environment

ABSTRACT

A system to provide an interactive experience with a participant device operating in relation to a vehicle is disclosed. The interactive experience may include live experience presentations synchronized across multiple participant devices. The multiple participant devices may be operating within or outside of the vehicle. The system may identify a relationship between the participant device and the vehicle. A live experience presentation on the participant device is configured based on the identified relationship. One or more of multimedia and/or multi-sensory streams may be communicated amongst the multiple participant devices and an experience service as layers. The layers are composed to generate the live experience presentation. The experience service may be implemented by an experience platform system.

BACKGROUND

Interactive events and gatherings allow people and/or audience tointeract with each other and with event performers. Each interactiveexperience can be unique and fun. However, interactive events have beenconstrained to one physical location.

While live events or gatherings can be broadcasted through Internet orTV channels, interaction options are limited. Each participant of a liveevent can watch the same live video stream. Participants do not feelconnected with other participants in remote physical venues nor theperformer(s) or speaker(s) of the live event or gathering.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

A method of operating a network-capable experience platform system isdisclosed. The method includes: facilitating an interactive gathering byproviding layers for composing a live experience presentation on aparticipant device, the layers including a content layer; identifying arelationship between the participant device and a vehicle; configuringthe live experience presentation based on the relationship between theparticipant device and the vehicle; generating an interactive objectwithin the layers based on the relationship; and managing theinteractive object based on the relationship. The method may beimplemented as one or more modules stored on a non-transitory storagemedium executable by a processor.

A method of operating a network-capable participant device is alsodisclosed. The method includes: receiving a content layer at theparticipant device; generating a live experience presentation for aninteractive gathering on the participant device, the live experiencepresentation composed of layers including a base layer and the contentlayer; identifying a relationship between the participant device and avehicle; configuring the live experience presentation based on therelationship; generating an interactive object within the layers basedon the relationship; and managing the interactive object based on therelationship.

An in-vehicle device coupled to a vehicle is further disclosed. Thein-vehicle device is configured to join or create an interactivegathering and interact with a participant device through a togetherexperience service. The in-vehicle device includes: a network deviceconfigured to communicate with the together experience service andreceive multimedia stream layers from the together experience service; asensor configured to provide a location information of the vehicle; ainput device configured to capture a multimedia stream; and a modulestored on a non-transitory storage medium, when executed by a processoris configured to: receive a video stream from the participant deviceexternal to the vehicle via the network device; generate a liveexperience presentation of the interactive gathering, the liveexperience presentation composed of the multimedia stream layersincluding a content layer and the video stream; provide an interactiveobject on the live experience presentation capable of affecting externallive experience presentation of the participant device to facilitateinteraction among participants of the interactive gathering.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the presentdisclosure will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from astudy of the following detailed description in conjunction with theappended claims and drawings, all of which form a part of thisspecification. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an interactive experience system in accordance withone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a cloud-based experienceplatform 160 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart showing a set of operations 300 that maybe used in accordance with yet another embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart showing a set of operations that may beused in accordance with yet another embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a an interior view of an automobile implementing aninteractive experience system in accordance with yet another embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates devices in an automobile implementing an interactiveexperience system in accordance with yet another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates devices in an automobile implementing an interactiveexperience system in accordance with yet another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exterior view of an automobile implementing aninteractive experience system in accordance with yet another embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates devices in an airport waiting area implementing aninteractive experience system in accordance with yet another embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates devices on an aircraft implementing an interactiveexperience system in accordance with yet another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates devices on an aircraft implementing an interactiveexperience system in accordance with yet another embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates architecture of video audio host system at a hostvenue of an interactive experience in accordance with yet anotherembodiment of the present disclosure.

The drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, thedimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded orreduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Similarly, some components and/or operations may beseparated into different blocks or combined into a single block for thepurposes of discussion of some of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Moreover, while the invention is amenable to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have beenshown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detailbelow. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention to theparticular embodiments described. On the contrary, the invention isintended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternativesfalling within the scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate tomethods and systems for providing an interactive experience capable ofsynchronizing participants at one or more physical venues. In someembodiments, the one or more physical venues may include mobilevehicles, stationary locations, or any combination thereof. Vehicles mayinclude, but are not limited to, aircraft, trains, boats, buses,automobiles, emergency vehicles, or any combination thereof. In suchvehicles, participants may include, but are not limited to, drivers,pilots, support staff such as an airline flight crew, passengers, or anycombination thereof. Stationary locations may include, but are notlimited to, buildings, stadiums, houses, parks, plazas, other locationsthat are not mobile, or any combination thereof.

Traditionally, participants in vehicles had limited options to interactwith other participants in their vehicle, with participants in othervehicles, or with participants at other remote stationary physicalvenues. For example, some airlines provide passengers with an option tochat via an instant message service with fellow passengers on a flight.In such an example, passengers may communicate but do not feelconnected. Although in close proximity to each other, passengers mayfeel disconnected from each other due to the way in which they areseated. In contrast, various embodiments of the present disclosureprovide multiple participants an interactive experience through the useof multiple devices, multiple sensors and/or an experience platform. Theinteractive experience may be presented to participants in the form ofaudio, visual, tactile, or other sensations. Streams of data from one ormore physical venues or at other physical venues may be coupled andsynchronized through an experience platform. The content (e.g. audioand/or visual streams) of the interactive experience may then be sharedamong participants at any number of physical venues. Any particularparticipant at a particular physical venue can play an active role inthe interactive experience by interacting with other participants at theparticular physical venue or with other participants at other physicalvenues.

While examples described herein refer to an interactive experiencesystem, the descriptions should not be taken as limiting the scope ofthe present disclosure. Various alternative, modifications andequivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without varyingfrom the spirit of the invention. For example, coupling andsynchronizing an interactive event experience may be implemented in anycomputing system organizing live data stream. For another example, theinteractive event experience system may include multiple computersystems spanning multiple locations, or reside in a cloud computingplatform. It will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the artthat computing devices constituting the cloud computing platform neednot be located remotely from a particular physical venue. For example,multiple participant devices, such as iPad® devices, iPhone® devices,Android® devices, other tablet devices, or any combination thereof maybe located at or near a particular physical venue and may be coupled toeach other through a wired (e.g. USB, or Ethernet over twisted pairs ofcopper cable such as Category 6 cable) or wireless (e.g. Wifi, orBluetooth) connection, thereby constituting a cloud computing platform.

FIG. 1 diagrams an interactive experience system 100 suitable forproviding an interactive event experience. The system may include anexperience platform 160, a local physical venue 110 and one or moreremote physical venues 150. Examples of the local physical venue 110 orremote physical venues 150 may in include, vehicles, stationarylocations, or any combination thereof. The local physical venue 110 mayinclude one or more participant devices 112, such as iPad® devices,iPhone® devices, Android® devices, other tablet devices, or anycombination thereof, one or more integrated venue devices 113, such asspeakers, LCD monitors, sensors (e.g. cameras, microphones, heatsensors, proximity sensors), or any combination thereof, an optionalcomputing service 111, and an internet connection coupling the one ormore participant devices to a cloud computing service 130. It isappreciated that the experience platform 160 need not be physicallyseparate from the participant devices 112, 153, integrated venue devices113, 153, optional computing service 111, 151, or cloud computingplatform 130 as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1. See FIG. 2 for furtherinformation on the experience platform 160. Each of the one or moreremote venues 150 may include one or more participant devices 152, oneor more integrated venue devices 153, an optional computing service 151,and an internet connection coupling at least one participant device tothe cloud computing platform 130. The experience platform 160 can coupleaudiovisual streams from the host physical venue 110 and the one or moreremote physical venues 150, and provide a synchronized interactive eventexperience to all participants.

The interactive experience system 100 can provide options to a hostparticipant to create an interactive experience spanning across aplurality of physical venues. The host participant may define theinteractive experience as a public experience or a private experience.The host participant at the host physical venue may invite participantsat the host physical venue, participants at remote physical venues,and/or participants online, to join the interactive experience. If theinteractive experience is private, only the host participant and/orinvited participants can invite additional participants to join theinteractive experience.

In some embodiments, the interactive experience may include at least acontent layer with audio and visual dimensions. The content layer mayinclude live audiovisual streams (e.g. video, still images, and/orrendered graphics) from a plurality of physical venues, recordedaudiovisual streams (e.g. video, still images, and/or renderedgraphics), streams of data associated with interactive games, streams ofdata associated with text, streams of data associated with other media(e.g. software, or documents), or any combination thereof. Based on thecharacteristics of a particular physical venue, the content layer of theinteractive experience may be presented differently on differentintegrated venue devices and participant devices.

Some embodiments may present a plurality of objects (e.g. graphicaltiles displaying video streams presented on an LCD screen, graphicaltiles displaying digital still images presented on an LCD screen,graphical tiles displaying graphics associated with an interactive gamepresented on an LCD screen, audio streams presented through a speaker,or any combination thereof) on an integrated venue device and/orparticipant device at a physical venue. Each object may correspond tolive audiovisual streams from a particular physical venue or from remotephysical venues. In some implementations, the volume of the audio streamfrom a particular participant device and/or a particular integratedvenue device may be a function of the proximity between the particularparticipant device and/or the particular integrated venue device andanother participant device and/or another integrated venue device. Insome implementations, the audio stream from a particular participantdevice and/or particular integrated venue device may be set at aconstant ambient level or muted if the distances (as displayed on aparticipant device and/or integrated venue device) between the objectscorresponding to the audio stream from the particular participant deviceand/or the particular integrated venue device are beyond a certaindistance from the objects corresponding to another participant deviceand/or integrated venue device.

The interactive experience system 100 can provide options to aparticular participant at a particular physical venue to select andengage in dialogue with another participant at either the particularphysical venue or at a particular remote physical venue. During thedialogue, the objects corresponding to video and audio streams from theparticular participant and/or the particular remote physical venue maybecome larger, as in the size of a particular object, and/or moreprominent audio in the interactive event. In some embodiments, close-upvideo of the particular participant and/or the other participant may beprovided while the particular participant and/or the other participantare talking.

In some embodiments, when the particular participant and/or the otherparticipant start to talk, the volume of audio streams from otherdimensions may go down. When the particular participant and/or the otherparticipant stop talking, the volume of audio streams from otherdimensions may go up again. In some implementations, video(s) that isshared among all participants in the content layer may be replaced withvideo and audio streams from the particular participant and/or the otherparticipant who are talking.

In some embodiments, participants may have different predetermined roleswithin the interactive experience. The content presented and/or optionsavailable to each participant may depend on the pre-determined role ofthe participant.

For example, in the case of an interactive experience on an aircraft,the participants may assume a number of different roles including, butnot limited to, pilot, passenger, or aircraft support staff. Due tosafety concerns, a pilot may not have access to entertainment content,such as video, that is available to the passengers, but may have broadcontrol over the way in which the content is presented to passengers.For example, the pilot may, through the use of the interactiveexperience system 100, present visual or audio content associated withflight announcements on integrated venue devices and/or passengerparticipant devices, or may draw on a live map displayed on integratedvenue device and/or passenger participant devices to relay informationabout a diverted flight path. In order to provide the pilot greatercontrol over the interactive experience, the interactive experiencesystem 100 may provide the pilot with the option to override all contentcurrently displayed on passenger participant devices. Similarly, theinteractive experience system 100 may provide the aircraft support staffwith options to override a particular interactive experience amongpassenger participants make an important announcements to passengerparticipants regarding the flight. Conversely, passenger participantsmay have only limited control over content displayed on otherparticipant devices. For example, the interactive experience system 100may allow a family of passenger participants that are not seatedtogether to share photos among passenger participant devices associatedwith the family of passenger participants, but may not allow thepassenger participants to share photos with the integrated venuedevices.

In some embodiments, the content and/or options presented on aparticipant device may be determined by the relative position of thedevice within a physical venue.

For example, in the case of an automobile as a physical venue, theinteractive experience system 100 may restrict certain contentassociated with the interactive experience from being presented on aparticipant device located near the driver's seat in order to preventthe distraction of a driver participant. In the same example, theinteractive experience system 100 may provide the participant devicedifferent options to adjust the content of the interactive experiencedepending on the location of the participant device in the automobile.For example, options to control the ambient temperature in theautomobile may be presented on a participant device located near thefront passenger seat, but not on participant devices located near therear passenger seats. Similarly, in the case of an aircraft as aphysical venue, the interactive experience system 100 may restrictcertain content associated with the interactive experience from beingpresented on a participant device located in the cockpit in order toprevent the distraction of a pilot and/or co-pilot. In that sameexample, access to services associated with the interactive experiencemay differ depending on the class of seating in which a participantdevice is located. Participant devices located in a first class seatingsection may be allowed the option of viewing entertainment content notavailable to participant devices located in the coach seating area.

The interactive experience system 100 may equalize participant devicesand/or integrated venue devices at a plurality of physical venuesthrough an experience platform 160. The experience platform 160 cancouple and synchronize audiovisual streams from the plurality ofphysical venues, resulting in a synchronized interactive experiencebetween participants at each physical venue. Audio and/or visual streamsfrom participant devices and/or integrated venue devices at a localphysical venue 110 and/or remote physical venue 150 may be transmittedto the experience platform 160 via internet. The experience platform 160can couple and synchronize the audio and/or visual streams from thelocal physical venue 110 and/or remote physical venue 150. Audio and/orvisual streams from a particular physical venue can be presented as oneor more objects on one or more content layers provided by the experienceplatform 160, each of the one or more objects corresponding to audioand/or visual streams from a particular physical venue.

In some embodiments, the experience platform may take a set of audiostreams from a particular physical venue at any particular time. The setof audio streams from the particular physical venue can be generated bya microphone, one of the participant device(s), or combined audiostreams from the microphone and the participant device. The combinedaudio streams can be provided by an audiovisual system coupled to themicrophone and the smart device at the particular physical venue via aWi-Fi or a wired connection.

In some embodiments, options are provided to a particular participantand/or particular physical venue to manage attention in the interactiveexperience. The particular participant may draw and/or write on thecontent layer with a variety of color selections. The color ink ofdrawing or writing can be color-coded with each color representing aspecific meaning. For example, an aircraft flight crew participant candisplay an image of the aircraft on passenger participant devices andthen circle the exits of the aircraft in green to indicate points ofegress. Similarly, the aircraft flight crew participant may circle asection of the aircraft in red to indicate an area of the aircraft thatis not accessible to passengers.

In some embodiments, participants can be organized into groups. Forexample, passenger participants on an aircraft may be divided into twoteams to play an interactive game through the interactive experiencesystem 100. Similarly, passenger participants on a flight may compete asa team in an interactive game against passengers on another flightthrough the interactive experience system 100.

In some implementations, a particular participant using a particularparticipant device may initiate an interaction with other participantsby throwing animated objects, such as flowers, eggs, tomatoes, or otheranimated objects at the screens of other participant devices. In thisexample, the participant throwing the animated objects may do so bymaking a hand gesture that is sensed by the particular participantdevice. In some implementations, a particular participant at a physicalvenue can participate in the interactive experience through gesturesand/or actions, e.g., clapping, cheering, jeering, and booing. In thisexample, the gestures and/or actions may be sensed by sensors insideparticipant devices and/or integrated venue devices.

Some embodiments may provide methods instantiated on an experienceplatform, a local computer and/or a portable device. In someimplementations, methods may be distributed across local and remotedevices in the cloud computing service.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a cloud-based experienceplatform 160 according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.The experience platform 160 may include at least one processor 220, oneor more network interface 250 and one or more computer readable medium230, all interconnected via one or more data bus 210. In FIG. 2, variouscomponents are omitted for illustrative simplicity. The experienceplatform 160 is intended to illustrate a device on which any othercomponents described in this specification (e.g., any of the componentsdepicted in FIGS. 1-12) can be implemented.

The experience platform 160 may take a variety of physical forms. By wayof examples, the experience platform 160 may be a desktop computer, alaptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portablecomputer, a tablet PC, a wearable computer, an interactive kiosk, amobile phone, a server, a mainframe computer, a mesh-connected computer,a single-board computer (SBC) (e.g., a BeagleBoard, a PC-on-a-stick, aCubieboard, a CuBox, a Gooseberry, a Hawkboard, a Mbed, a OmapZoom, aOrigenboard, a Pandaboard, a Pandora, a Rascal, a Raspberry Pi, aSheevaPlug, a Trim-Slice), an embedded computer system, or a combinationof two or more of these. Where appropriate, the experience platform 160may include one or more experience platform 160, be unitary ordistributed, span multiple locations, span multiple machines, or residein a cloud, which may include one or more cloud components in one ormore networks. Where appropriate, one or more experience platform 160may perform without substantial spatial or temporal limitation one ormore steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. As anexample and not by way of limitation, one or more experience platform160 may perform in real time or in batch mode one or more steps of oneor more methods described or illustrated herein. One or more experienceplatform 160 may perform at different times or at different locationsone or more steps of one or more methods described or illustratedherein, where appropriate.

The experience platform 160 preferably may include an operating systemsuch as, but not limited to, Windows®, Linux® or UNIX®. The operatingsystem may include a file management system, which organizes and keepstrack of files. In some embodiments, a separate file management systemmay be provided. The separate file management can interact smoothly withthe operating system and provide enhanced and/or more features, such asimproved backup procedures and/or stricter file protection.

The at least one processor 220 may be any suitable processor. The typeof the at least one processor 220 may comprise one or more from a groupcomprising a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), a physics processing unit (PPU), a digital signalprocessor, a network processor, a front end processor, a data processor,a word processor and an audio processor.

The one or more data bus 210 is configured to couple components of theexperience platform 160 to each other. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the one or more data bus 210 may include a graphics bus(e.g., an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)), an Enhanced IndustryStandard Architecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), aHyperTransport (HT) interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture(ISA) bus, an Infiniband interconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, amemory bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, a PeripheralComponent Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI-Express (PCI-X) bus, a serialadvanced technology attachment (SATA) bus, a Video Electronics StandardsAssociation local (VLB) bus, or another suitable bus or a combination oftwo or more of these. Although the present disclosure describes andillustrates a particular bus, this disclosure contemplates any suitablebus or interconnects.

The one or more network interface 250 may include one or more of a modemor network interface. It will be appreciated that a modem or networkinterface can be considered to be part of the experience platform 160.The interface can include an analog modem, an asymmetric digitalsubscribe line (ADSL) modem, a cable modem, a doubleway satellite modem,a power line modem, a token ring interface, a Cambridge ring interface,a satellite transmission interface or any suitable interface forcoupling a computer system to other computer systems. The interface caninclude one or more input and/or output devices. The I/O devices caninclude, by way of example but not limitation, a keyboard, a mouse orother pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, a touch screen,a tablet screen, and other input and/or output devices, including adisplay device. The display device can include, by way of example butnot limitation, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), a 3-D display, or some other applicable known orconvenient display device. For simplicity, it is assumed thatcontrollers of any devices not depicted in the example of FIG. 2 residein the interface.

The computer readable medium 230 may include any medium device that isaccessible by the processor 220. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the computer readable medium 230 may include volatile memory(e.g., a random access memory (RAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), and/or astatic RAM (SRAM)) and non-volatile memory (i.e., a flash memory, aread-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasableprogrammable ROM (EPROM), and/or an electrically erasable programmableROM (EEPROM)). When appropriate, the volatile memory and/or non-volatilememory may be single-ported or multiple-ported memory. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable memory. In some embodiments, the computerreadable medium 230 may include a semiconductor-based or otherintegrated circuit (IC) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) oran application-specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid harddrive (HHD), an optical disc (i.e., a CD-ROM, or a digital versatiledisk (DVD)), an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, amagneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD), amagnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD),a secure digital (SD) card, a SD drive, or another suitablecomputer-readable storage medium or a combination of two or more ofthese, where appropriate. The computer readable medium 230 may bevolatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile,where appropriate.

Programs 2310 may be stored on the one or more computer readable medium230. As an example, but not by way of limitation, the experienceplatform 160 may load the programs 2310 to an appropriate location onthe one or more compute readable medium 230 for execution. The programs2310, when executed, may cause the experience platform 160 to performone or more operations or one or more methods described or illustratedherein. In some implementations, the operations may include, but are notlimited to, receiving live stream signals, including audio streams, fromeach of a plurality of physical venues of an interactive event,synchronizing the live stream signals from the plurality of physicalvenues, displaying a plurality of objects on a content layer that isinstantiated on the display device of each of the plurality of physicalvenues, each of the plurality of objects corresponding to live streamsignals from a specific physical venue, and providing options for aspecific participant at a particular physical venue to manage the sizeof each of plurality of objects on the display device at the particularphysical venue.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, theoperations may be instantiated locally (i.e. on a local computer or aportable device) and may be distributed across a system including aportable device and one or more other computing devices. For example, itmay be determined that the available computing power of the portabledevice is insufficient or that additional computer power is needed, andmay offload certain aspects of the operations to the cloud. As discussedearlier, it will be appreciated to one having ordinary skill in the artthat the cloud need not be located remotely from a particular physicalvenue. Instead, the cloud may comprise computing devices, includingparticipant devices, located partially or exclusively at a particularphysical venue.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart showing a set of operations 300 that maybe used in accordance with yet another embodiment of the presentdisclosure. At step 310, a host participant is provided option to createan interactive experience spanning across one or more physical venues.The interactive experience may have various dimensions, such as acontent layer with live audiovisual dimensions and/or a content layerwith interactive, graphic, and/or ensemble dimensions. The content layermay include audiovisual streams from a plurality of physical venuesassociated with the interactive experience and/or audiovisual streamsbetween participants at a particular physical venue associated with theinteractive experience.

At step 320, one or more options may be provided for a remoteparticipant to join the interactive experience. A participant may opt tojoin an ongoing interactive experience if the interactive experience ispublic. If the interactive experience is private, only the hostparticipant and/or existing participants of the interactive experiencemay invite new participants. At step 330, an interactive experience maybe coupled and synchronized among participants across one or morephysical venues.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart showing a set of operations 400 that maybe used in accordance with yet another embodiment of the presentdisclosure. At step 410, live streams, including audio and visualstreams, may be received from each of one or more physical venues of aninteractive experience. The live streams may include close-up video ofan individual participant (e.g., a host participant, a particularparticipant who is talking) and/or a group of participants (e.g.,participants at a remote physical venue).

At step 420, a plurality of objects may be presented on thecorresponding participant devices and/or integrated venue devices ofeach physical venue. Each of the plurality of objects may correspond toa particular physical venue of the interactive experience. In someimplementations, a wide master shot capturing the overall live event atthe host venue may be displayed as a content layer on the participantdevices and/or integrated venue devices of each physical venue.

At step 430, options may be provided to a particular participant at aparticular physical venue to manage the position of its correspondingobject relative to other objects. The volume of a live audio stream fromanother physical venue may be a function of distance between the objectcorresponding to the particular physical venue and the objectscorresponding to the other physical venue. The particular participantmay move to a different relative position within the particular physicalvenue to experience different dimensions of the interactive experience.

At step 440, options may be provided to the particular participant atthe particular physical venue to initiate an interaction withparticipants located at the particular physical venue or other physicalvenues of the interactive experience.

FIGS. 5-8 illustrate, by way of example, an implementation of themethods and systems in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In this example, a driver 590 has initiated a privateinteractive experience at an automobile 500, 800. FIG. 5 illustrates adriver's view inside an automobile that implements an interactiveexperience system. FIG. 6 illustrates a remote participant device thatis interacting with the automobile illustrated in FIG. 5. FIG. 7illustrates a passenger participant using a passenger participant devicein the back seat of the automobile illustrated in FIG. 5. FIG. 8illustrates an exterior view showing external sensors on the automobileillustrated in FIG. 5.

According to FIG. 8, the automobile 800 may include external sensors 810such as cameras, heat sensors, proximity sensors, microphones, or anycombination thereof. The external sensors may be functionally connectedto a computing device located in the automobile via either a wired orwireless connection. The external sensors 810 may also be functionallyconnected to a participant device located within the automobile oroutside of the automobile via a wired or wireless connection. Accordingto FIG. 5, the automobile 500 may also have internal sensors 510 such ascameras, proximity sensors, or microphones. Also according to FIG. 5,the automobile may have an integrated display 540 and integratedspeakers.

According to FIG. 5, an experience platform presents content associatedwith the interactive experience on one or more objects on one or morecontent layers. In the illustrated example, objects associated withvisual streams may be displayed on the integrated display device insidethe automobile. Similarly, objects associated with audio streams may bepresented via integrated speakers inside the automobile. In theillustrated example, the objects presented are associated with anaudiovisual stream 542 from a remote participant device 630 (as shown inFIG. 6), an audiovisual stream 541 from a participant device 730 (asshown in FIG. 7) located near the back seat of the automobile 500, agraphic of a map 543 showing the current location of the automobile 500,and a object 544 graphically displaying updated data from the externaland internal sensors of the automobile 500.

According to FIG. 6, a remote participant 690 may have remoteparticipant device 630 capable of presenting content from theinteractive experience. For the purpose of illuminating the presentexample, the remote participant in this example might be the spouse ofthe driver 590 who has joined the driver's interactive experience fromthe couple's home. It should be noted that because the driver 590initiated a private interactive experience, the remote participant 690would wait for an invitation from the driver 590 or from an existingparticipant before joining the interactive experience. The experienceplatform couples and synchronizes the data associated with the eventsoccurring at the automobile 500, 800 which allows the remote participant690 to participate in the interactive experience. In the illustratedexample, the objects of the interactive experience presented on theremote participant device 630 are associated with an audiovisual stream631 from the integrated internal camera 510 inside the automobile 500focused on the driver 590, an audiovisual stream 632 from the passengerparticipant device 730 (as shown in FIG. 7) located near the back seatof the automobile 500, an audiovisual stream 633 from an external cameraon the automobile 500 showing the view of the driver 590, a graphic map634 showing the current location of the automobile 500, and an object635 displaying continuously updated data from the external and internalsensors of the automobile 500.

In the illustrated example, the remote participant 690 may interact withthe other participants in a number of different ways. For example, theremote participant 690 may make a swiping motion with their finger todraw a circle around a point of interest. The experience platform maythen display the circle over the map 543 on the integrated display 540in the automobile 500 in FIG. 5. The remote participant 690 may alsolook up information on a nearby restaurant on the remote participantdevice 630 and send that information to be displayed on the integrateddisplay 540 at the automobile 500. Alternatively, the remote participant690 may send a video clip to the passenger participant device 730 (asshown in FIG. 7) located in the back seat of the automobile 500.

According to FIG. 7, a passenger participant 790 may be seated in theback seat of the automobile 500 and have a passenger participant device730 capable of presenting content from this and/or other interactiveexperiences. For the purpose of illuminating the present example, thepassenger participant 790 in this example might be the child of thedriver 590 and the remote participant 690. Here the passengerparticipant 790 has joined both the private interactive experience atthe automobile and a public interactive experience at a sporting event.The experience platform may present objects associated with both theprivate interactive experience at the automobile 500 or the publicinteractive experience at the sporting event. Here, an object of theprivate interactive experience at the automobile 500 is associated withthe audiovisual stream 731 from the remote participant device 630. Theobjects of the public interactive experience at the sporting event areassociated with an audiovisual stream 732 from the remote physical venueof the sporting event and audiovisual streams 733 from remoteparticipants of the public interactive experience at the sporting event.For the purpose of illuminating the present example, the remoteparticipants 733 of the interactive experience at the sporting event maybe friends of the local participant 790.

As discussed earlier, a system according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure may be configured to limit the display of content ona particular participant device based on the relative location of theparticipant device in the physical venue. In the present example,according to FIG. 7, the system may be configured so that the localparticipant device 730 is incapable of receiving the audiovisual stream732 from the sporting event when the local participant device 730 islocated near the driver's seat of the automobile 500 and the automobile500 is in motion. Such a configuration would allow the local participant790 to avoid distraction while driving the automobile 500. Configurationof this feature may be adjusted according to the characteristics of thephysical venue. For example, an interactive experience system inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure may recognizethat the automobile 500 is equipped with systems allowing the automobile500 to automatically drive with minimal input from a driver. Theinteractive experience system can then adjust the configuration therebyallowing a participant device 730 to display the audiovisual stream 732from the sporting event while the participant device 730 is near thedriver's seat and the automobile 500 is in motion.

FIGS. 9-11 illustrate, by way of example, an implementation of themethods and systems in accordance with one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. In this example, a participant has initiated a privateinteractive experience at an aircraft 900. FIG. 9 illustrates passengers990 waiting at an airport 910 to board an aircraft 900 and utilizing aninteractive experience system such as the interactive experience systemillustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 10 illustrates a passenger seated in a coachseating section 1000 on board an aircraft 900 utilizing an interactiveexperience system such as the interactive experience system illustratedin FIG. 1. FIG. 11 illustrates passengers 1190 seated in a first classlounge 1100 on board an aircraft 900 utilizing an interactive experiencesystem such as the interactive experience system illustrated in FIG. 1.

According to FIG. 9, an airport waiting area 910 may include integratedvenue devices, in this example, an integrated display 950 and integratedspeakers 940. Additionally passengers 990 may carry passengerparticipant devices 930, in this example, mobile tablet devices. Once aparticular participant has initiated the private interactive experienceat the aircraft 900, passengers 990 may join the interactive experienceat which point they become passenger participants 990 in the interactiveexperience. In this example, the interactive experience is private sopassengers 990 must wait to be invited before joining the interactiveexperience. Alternatively, the system may be configured so thatpassengers 990 automatically join and become participants once they comeinto close proximity with a physical venue, in this case the aircraft900.

According to FIG. 9, an experience platform may present contentassociated with the interactive experience on one or more objects on oneor more content layers. In the illustrated example, objects associatedwith visual streams may be displayed on the integrated display device950. Similarly, objects associated with audio streams may be presentedvia the integrated speakers 940. Here, the objects of the interactiveexperience presented on the integrated display 950 and integratedspeakers 940 are associated with an audiovisual stream 951 from a flightcrew participant, a visual stream of a graphic of a map 952 showing thecurrent location of the aircraft 900, and a visual stream of a graphic953 showing updated data from internal and/or external sensors on theaircraft 900. The objects of the interactive experience presented on theparticipant devices 930 may be the same as those displayed on theintegrated display 950 or they may include objects with particularizedinformation such as ticketing information of seating assignment.Additionally, the interactive experience system may be configured toallow passenger participants 990 to utilize the integrated display 950and integrated speakers 940 to make announcements. For example, apassenger participant 990 may, with a gesture on a touch-screenpassenger participant device 930, send an object associated with anaudiovisual stream from the passenger participant device to theintegrated display 950. The passenger participant 990 may then make anannouncement to other participants in the waiting area to ask to switchseats so that they can sit with a family member.

According to FIG. 10, the coach seating section 1000 on the aircraft 900may include a plurality of integrated displays 1040 and integratedspeakers. Additionally, the passenger participant may have a passengerparticipant device 1030. An experience platform displays contentassociated with the interactive experience on one or more objects one ormore content layers. In the illustrated example, objects associated withvisual streams may be displayed on the integrated display device 1040.Similarly, objects associated with audio streams may be presented viathe integrated speakers. Here, the objects of the interactive experiencepresented on the integrated display devices 1040 and integrated speakersare associated with a live audiovisual stream 1041 from a remotephysical venue hosting a sporting event and a live audiovisual streamfrom a pilot participant 1042. The objects of the interactive experiencepresented on the passenger participant device 1030 are associated withlive audiovisual streams 1031 from other passenger participants, a liveaudiovisual stream from the pilot participant 1032, and a visual stream1033 of graphics associated with an interactive game of Scrabble.

In the above example, a live audiovisual stream 1041 from a remotephysical venue hosting a sporting event is presented on the integrateddisplays 1040 and integrated speakers. The selection of contentpresented on the integrated displays 1040 and speakers may be set by aparticular participant, for example a flight crew member. The contentpresented on the integrated displays 1040 and integrated speakers mayalso be selected by a direct vote from all of the passenger participantsvia passenger participant devices 1032. Additionally, the contentpresented on integrated displays 1040 and integrated speakers may beselected automatically by the experience platform based on the level ofemotional engagement of the passenger participants. In such anembodiment, the level of emotional engagement of the passengerparticipants may be determined using a plurality of sensors integratedinto the physical venue 900 and/or integrated into individualparticipant devices 1030.

In the above example, live audiovisual streams 1031 from other passengerparticipants are presented on a passenger participant device 1030. Forthe purpose of illuminating the present example, the other passengerparticipants may be members of a family that are seated separately, butwish to speak with one another. The objects associated with theaudiovisual streams 1031 from the other passenger participants may besized according to various criteria. For example, the passengerparticipant may control the size of each object, by using hand gestureson a touch screen. Additionally, the experience platform mayautomatically size an object when the passenger participant associatewith the object is speaking. Additionally, the experience platform mayautomatically size objects based on a relative distance betweenpassenger participants associated with the objects on the aircraft 900.

In addition to communicating via audiovisual streams, the passengerparticipants in the above example may interact with each other byplaying an interactive game. Here, the passenger participant and threeother passenger participants on the aircraft are playing an interactivegame of Scrabble 1033. Additionally, the passenger participant mayinvite another participant to join the game of scrabble 1033. The otherparticipant in the game of Scrabble may be physically located on thesame flight, on a different flight, or at another remote physical venue,for example a house.

It should be noted that in the above example, the experience engine ispresenting an object associated with an AV stream 1042 from the pilotparticipant on the passenger participant device 1032 as well as all ofthe integrated displays 1040. Here, the pilot participant is overridingall devices associated with the interactive experience (both participantdevices and integrated venue devices) to convey an important message toother participants about the flight.

FIG. 11 illustrates several passenger participants 1190 seated in afirst class lounge 1100 in the aircraft 900. According to FIG. 11, thecoach seating section 1100 on the aircraft 900 may have a one or moreintegrated displays 1140 and one or more integrated speakers 1140.Additionally, the passenger participants 1190 may have passengerparticipant devices 1130. Similar to the coach seating section 1000, theexperience platform displays content associated with the interactiveexperience on one or more objects on one or more content layers. In theillustrated example, objects associated with visual streams may bedisplayed on the integrated display devices 1140 inside the first classlounge 1100 or displayed on participant devices 1130 in the first classlounge 1100. Similarly, objects associated with audio streams may bepresented via integrated speakers 1140 in the first class lounge 1100 orpresented via participant devices 1130 in the first class lounge 1100.As discussed earlier, additional content and/or services may beavailable to participant devices 1130 located in the first class lounge1100 that are not available to participant devices 1030 located in thecoach seating 1000. For example, the experience platform may grantpriority to participant devices 1130 in the first class lounge 1100 fordirect live audiovisual streams to remote participants (e.g. familymembers and friends on the ground) where granting such services to allparticipant devices 1030 in the coach seating area 1000 would overwhelmavailable bandwidth on a satellite connection from the aircraft 900 tothe internet.

It will understood that while the above illustrated examples describe aninteractive experience system that manages audiovisual streams thepresent disclosure is not limited to just audiovisual streams. Accordingto another embodiment, the experience platform may also couple andsynchronize streams of data associated with touch, smell or othersensory data that may be used to provide an interactive experience. Forexample, a particular passenger device may transmit a stream of tactiledata. In this example, the particular participant passenger participantmay touch a particular passenger particular device and the experienceplatform may present the tactile data on another passenger participantdevice in the form of a tactile sensation transmitted to a hand of theother passenger participant, thereby allowing a particular passengerparticipant to touch another passenger participant seated in anothersection of the aircraft.

FIG. 12 illustrates architecture of video and audio system at a hostvenue 700 of an interactive experience in accordance with yet anotherembodiment of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that thehost venue in this context may be either a vehicle or a stationaryphysical venue. In some embodiments, video signals captured at the hostvenue 700 (e.g., video signals from participant devices) may betransmitted to a house AV system 710 through wired and/or wirelessconnections. Audio signals captured at the host venue 700 (e.g., audiosignals from participant devices) may also be transmitted to the host AVsystem 710 through wired or wireless connections and combined into oneset of audio signals. The house AV system 710 can couple and synchronizereceived video and audio signals at the host venue 700. The house AVsystem 710 may transmit synchronized video and audio signals to anexperience platform via internet, a projection video screen, and/orhouse speakers at the host venue 700. In some implementations,synchronized video signals may also be transmitted to a DVR forrecording.

In some embodiments, video and audio signals captured at the host venue700 can be directly transmitted to an experience platform 160 viainternet or may be transmitted to experience platform via directwireless and/or wired transmission between devices (e.g. via Bluetooth).The experience platform 160 can couple and synchronize video and audiosignals from a plurality of physical venues of the interactiveexperience and then transmit synchronize video and audio signals todevices at all physical venues.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, theoperations or methods may be instantiated locally (i.e., on one localcomputer system) and may be distributed across remote computer systems.For example, it may be determined that the available computing power ofthe local computer system is insufficient or that additional computingpower is needed, and may offload certain aspects of the operations tothe cloud.

While the computer-readable medium is shown in an embodiment to be asingle medium, the term “computer-readable medium” should be taken toinclude single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storesthe one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by thecomputer and that cause the computer to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the presently disclosed technique and innovation.

Further examples of computer-readable medium, machine-readable storagemedium, machine-readable medium or computer-readable (storage) mediuminclude but are not limited to recordable type medium such as volatileand non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, harddisk drives, optical disks, Digital Versatile Disks, among others andtransmission type medium such as digital and analog communication links.

In some circumstances, operation of a memory device, such as a change instate from a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versa, for example, maycomprise a transformation, such as a physical transformation. Withparticular types of memory devices, such a physical transformation maycomprise a physical transformation of an article to a different state orthing. For example, but without limitation, for some types of memorydevices, a change in state may involve an accumulation and storage ofcharge or a release of stored charge. Likewise, in other memory devices,a change of state may comprise a physical change or transformation inmagnetic orientation or a physical change or transformation in molecularstructure, such as from crystalline to amorphous or vice versa. Theforegoing is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all examples inwhich a change in state for a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versain a memory device may comprise a transformation, such as a physicaltransformation. Rather, the foregoing are intended as illustrativeexamples.

A storage medium typically may be non-transitory or comprise anon-transitory device. In this context, a non-transitory storage mediummay include a device that is tangible, meaning that the device has aconcrete physical form, although the device may change its physicalstate. Thus, for example, non-transitory refers to a device remainingtangible despite this change in state.

The computer may be, but is not limited to, a server computer, a clientcomputer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, aset-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellulartelephone, an iPhone®, an iPad®, a processor, a telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

Some portions of the detailed description may be presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capableof being stored, transferred, combined, compared and otherwisemanipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasonsof common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or “generating” or the like, refer to theaction and processes of a computer system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registersand memories into other data similarly represented as physicalquantities within the computer system memories or registers or othersuch information storage, transmission or display devices.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the methods of some embodiments. The requiredstructure for a variety of these systems will appear from thedescription below. In addition, the techniques are not described withreference to any particular programming language, and variousembodiments may thus be implemented using a variety of programminglanguages.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of thedisclosure may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “programs.” The programs typically compriseone or more instructions set at various times in various memory andstorage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by oneor more processing units or processors in a computer, cause the computerto perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspectsof the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fullyfunctioning computers and computer systems, various embodiments arecapable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms,and that the disclosure applies equally regardless of the particulartype of computer-readable medium used to actually effect thedistribution.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but is not limited to.” As used herein, the terms“connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection orcoupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; thecoupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical ora combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,”“below” and words of similar import, when used in this application,shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particularportions of this application. Where the context permits, words in theabove Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” inreference to a list of two or more items, covers all the followinginterpretations of the word, any of the items in the list, all of theitems in the list and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of and examples for thedisclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of thedisclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks in a different order, and some processes or blocksmay be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined and/or modified toprovide alternative or sub combinations. Each of these processes orblocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, whileprocesses or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series,these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel or may beperformed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted hereinare only examples—alternative implementations may employ differingvalues or ranges.

The teaching of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to othersystems and not necessarily to the system described above. Any patentsand applications and other references noted above, including any thatmay be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein byreference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified if necessary toemploy the systems, functions and concepts of the various referencesdescribed above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified ifnecessary to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further embodiments of thedisclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain embodiments of the disclosure and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theteachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its implementation details while still being encompassedby the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above, particularterminology used when describing certain features or aspects of thedisclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology is beingredefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but alsoall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure underthe claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of thedisclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6, other aspects may likewise be embodied as ameans-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied ina computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35U.S.C. §112, ¶6 will begin with the words “means for”.) Accordingly, theapplicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing theapplication to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects ofthe disclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a nontransitory, tangible computer-readable storagemedium, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that isproduced by a computing process described herein. Such a product maycomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a nontransitory, tangible computer-readablestorage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a network-capableexperience platform system comprising: facilitating an interactivegathering by providing layers for composing a live experiencepresentation on a participant device, the layers including a contentlayer; identifying a relationship between the participant device and avehicle; configuring the live experience presentation based on therelationship between the participant device and the vehicle; generatingan interactive object within the layers based on the relationship; andmanaging the interactive object based on the relationship.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein configuring the live experience presentationincludes arranging the layers, suppressing at least one of the layers orelements within the layers, or configuring a privacy setting of who mayjoin the interactive gathering.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising joining the participant device to the interactive gatheringby identifying a participant through the participant device andsynchronizing the live experience presentation with an external liveexperience presentation of another participant of the interactivegathering.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying therelationship includes identifying whether the participant device iswithin the vehicle.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying therelationship includes identifying whether the participant device iswithin a predefined close proximity of the vehicle.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein identifying the relationship includes identifying aseat location of the participant device within the vehicle.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein identifying the relationship includesdetecting a device location of the participant device and detecting avehicle location of the vehicle.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinconfiguring the live experience presentation includes assigning aparticipant type associated with restrictions of receiving or sendingthe layers through the interactive gathering based on the relationship.9. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating the interactive gatheringfurther includes providing an output layer to an output deviceintegrated within the vehicle, the output layer different from thelayers provided for the participant device.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the interactive gathering includes participants from within thevehicle and external to the vehicle.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising equalizing and synchronizing the live experience presentationon the participant device with another live experience presentation on adevice within the vehicle.
 12. A method of operating a network-capableparticipant device comprising: receiving a content layer at theparticipant device; generating a live experience presentation for aninteractive gathering on the participant device, the live experiencepresentation composed of layers including a base layer and the contentlayer; identifying a relationship between the participant device and avehicle; configuring the live experience presentation based on therelationship; generating an interactive object within the layers basedon the relationship; and managing the interactive object based on therelationship.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the interactivegathering is private and only a subset of current participants of theinteractive gathering may invite an additional participant to join. 14.The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether thevehicle is in motion beyond a pre-defined threshold, wherein configuringthe live experience presentation includes providing an engagement blinddisabling at least part of the live experience presentation when thevehicle is in motion beyond the pre-defined threshold.
 15. The method ofclaim 12, wherein identifying the relationship includes determiningwhether the participant device is operated by a controller of thevehicle; and wherein configuring the live experience presentationincludes providing an engagement blind disabling at least part of thelive experience presentation when the controller is determined to beactively operating the vehicle.
 16. The method of claim 12, whereinidentifying the relationship includes determining whether theparticipant device is operated by a controller of the vehicle; andwherein generating the interactive object includes providing an overrideoption on the participant device to override other live experiencepresentations on participant devices of passengers of the vehicle. 17.The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the relationship includesdetermining whether the participant device is operated by a passenger ofthe vehicle; and wherein managing the interactive object includeslimiting control of participant device over other participant devices ofthe interactive gathering.
 18. The method of claim 12, whereingenerating the interactive object includes providing an adjustmentcontrol object on the participant device to activate an environmentmanipulation device within the vehicle based on the relationship of theparticipant device with the vehicle.
 19. The method of claim 12, whereingenerating the interactive object includes providing a premium contentobject on the participant device unavailable to another participantdevice within the vehicle based on the relationship of the participantdevice with the vehicle.
 20. The method of claim 12, wherein generatingthe interactive object includes providing a throwable object, animatedor still, on the participant device that may be pulled from theparticipant device to another participant device in the interactivegathering.
 21. The method of claim 12, wherein generating theinteractive object includes providing a graphical map including acurrent location or route of the vehicle.
 22. The method of claim 12,wherein generating the interactive object includes providing a livestream of a driver view from a camera within the vehicle.
 23. The methodof claim 12, further comprising joining the participant device in theinteractive gathering when the participant device is determined to bewithin a pre-defined proximity of the vehicle.
 24. The method of claim12, wherein generating the interactive object includes providing aseating arrangement object on the participant device.
 25. The method ofclaim 24, wherein the seating arrangement object allows the participantdevice to change a seating arrangement in the vehicle based onrelationship between the participant device and the vehicle.
 26. Anexperience platform system comprising: one or more modules stored on oneor more non-transitory storage mediums that, when executed by aprocessor, are configured to: facilitate an interactive gathering byproviding layers for composing a live experience presentation on aparticipant device, the layers including a content layer; identify arelationship between the participant device and a vehicle; configure thelive experience presentation based on the relationship between theparticipant device and the vehicle; generate an interactive objectwithin the layers based on the relationship; and manage the interactiveobject based on the relationship.
 27. The experience platform system ofclaim 26, wherein the one or more modules are further configured tocouple over a network to communicate with an embedded device within thevehicle.
 28. A participant device configured to interact with anotherparticipant device through an experience platform comprising: a networkdevice configured to receive a content layer; a module stored on anon-transitory storage medium, when executed by a processor isconfigured to: generate a live experience presentation for aninteractive gathering on the participant device, the live experiencepresentation composed of layers including a base layer and the contentlayer; identify a relationship between the participant device and avehicle; configure the live experience presentation based on therelationship; generate an interactive object within the layers based onthe relationship; and manage the interactive object based on therelationship; and a sensor configured to provide a location informationto facilitate the identifying of the relationship between theparticipant device and the vehicle.
 29. The participant device of claim28, wherein the network device is further configured to communicatedirectly an in-vehicle device integrated with the vehicle.
 30. Theparticipant device of claim 28, wherein the participant device isintegrated within the vehicle.
 31. An in-vehicle device coupled to avehicle, the in-vehicle device configured to join or create aninteractive gathering and interact with a participant device through atogether experience service comprising: a network device configured tocommunicate with the together experience service and receive multimediastream layers from the together experience service; a sensor configuredto provide a location information of the vehicle; a input deviceconfigured to capture a multimedia stream; and a module stored on anon-transitory storage medium, when executed by a processor isconfigured to: receive a video stream from the participant deviceexternal to the vehicle via the network device; generate a liveexperience presentation of the interactive gathering, the liveexperience presentation composed of the multimedia stream layersincluding a content layer and the video stream; provide an interactiveobject on the live experience presentation capable of affecting externallive experience presentation of the participant device to facilitateinteraction among participants of the interactive gathering.
 32. Thein-vehicle device of claim 31, wherein the input device is configured totoggle among at least a driver view perspective and in vehicleperspective.
 33. The in-vehicle device of claim 31, wherein the inputdevice is configured to capture audio and video streams.
 34. Thein-vehicle device of claim 31, further comprising an additional camerato capture a video stream having a different perspective than the inputdevice.